SFPD Announces Opiate Overdose Prevention Program

The San Francisco Police Department, in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), will distribute naloxone (trade name: Narcan) to Metro Division police officers (Central, Southern, Mission, Northern and Tenderloin Police Stations) as part of a pilot program to combat drug overdose. Naloxone is an emergency antidote that reverses the effects of opioid-type drugs, including heroin and prescription painkillers. Drug overdose is the most common cause of accidental death nationwide. In San Francisco, prescription opioid painkiller deaths have outpaced heroin-related deaths and continue to be a major threat to public health. The San Francisco Police Department joins hundreds of police departments and community groups nationwide in this worthy effort to prevent drug overdose deaths.

Over the past few months, the San Francisco Police Department teamed with the Harm Reduction Coalition’s Drug Overdose Prevention and Education (DOPE) project, funded by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and the San Francisco Fire Department to train police officers in how to recognize life-threatening opioid overdose, and administer the intranasal naloxone as an antidote.

We are in the business of saving lives. Naloxone will help us accomplish our mission.